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The shift: Pull vs. Push MR

September 22, 2015

Have you combined usage of both Push and Pull research methodologies?

Push is when researchers push surveys out to respondents. The researcher is in control of the message, the channel, the time, and every other factor to do with the survey invitation. In general, it’s when a researcher tries to get questions in front of respondents, regardless of their desire or interest to respond.

Pull is the opposite. It’s when a consumer seeks out your company or talks about it via public channels to other consumers – usually to offer opinions on an experience they had.

Push strategies are becoming less effective in the face of increased advertising clutter, decreased attention spans, and the habit of consumers to ignore company messages to instead find the info they want online. So it’s critical that researchers adapt to the behavior shift as consumers ignore push messaging and embrace pull strategies.

The Decline of Push MR

Until the 2000’s, Push MR methodologies were used to reach respondents and understand consumer behavior. It shouldn’t be immediately considered negative. It can actually be very efficient if executed well.

But nowadays with oversimplified DIY online surveys and the proliferation of panels of general consumers eager to exchange opinions for rewards, consumers are being bombarded with survey and panel invitations. The same habit of ignoring online advertising is creeping into consumers’ behavior with survey invitations. Organizations doing their own cheap surveys in lazy fashions sure isn’t helping.

The Rise of Pull MR

Consumers now have many ways to directly contact the brands they want to offer feedback on. They also have countless public forums where they can share opinions directly with other consumers, instantly. They no longer need to answer surveys to get their opinions heard by the company or other consumers.

Brands have already learned the importance of Pull MR. They’re using social media listening to hear what consumers are saying about their brands online. But analyzing public social media data is limited. There’s a lack of rich profile data and researchers can usually only hear the ‘whats’ of consumer opinions, and not the ‘whys’, or get ideas of how to improve. Not to mention the technical difficulties are increasing as Facebook and Twitter have increasingly limited data access.

Innovative organizations are creating private spaces for consumers to directly communicate with them, which allows for more than the initial superficial one-way conversation heard passively online. Pull MR creates opportunities to attract the consumers who want to talk with you, and who you want to talk with. It empowers consumers to spontaneously express themselves, and then the researchers to respond with more push-style questions to dig deeper into the why.

The most successful market research firms are adopting the best of Push and Pull methodologies. How are you combining Push and Pull MR techniques? Let us know on Twitter.